one nil to the Shpurs.
Shorry after watching the video below I’ve turned into, how do you shaay, a Shteve McClown and now can only shpeak in a McClown shtyle cod Dutch accshent…
So it’s another win for ‘Arry’s Army, though not exactly the most convincing of victories against a pretty ordinary NEC Nijmegen side, 1-0 thanks to Jamie O’Hara’s 14th minute headed tap in.
The goal was one piece of real class on the night, a great ball from Bentley inside the defender to the on rushing Bale, gets to the byline good cross, hardish attempt for Campbell so close in with the keeper at his feet but a great job from O’Hara to get in there, after he started it all, to finish it off.
The pitch conditions contributed to a poor game but I don’t think ‘Arry’s formation helped the team. Bentley’s no Modrich, he doesn’t have the pace and guile of the little Croat to play that in the hole number 10 position and it showed. There just wasn’t enough width all night, well until Lennon came on late, Bale and O’Hara did OK down the left but there wasn’t much coming from the right in the diamond formation. Nijmegen were susceptible to balls between fullback and centre back and it could have been exploited more.
The other main problem was giving away possession cheaply, which Spurs did most of the night, Huddlestone was particularly culpable with wayward passes and being brushed off the ball far too easily – did Jenas give him a tactical masterclass before the match?
Gomes, well he had one moment – in the video above 25 seconds in – when after a decent save he parried the ball into danger and was lucky Gunter was on hand to clear it but he had a far more assured time coming for crosses and commanding his area than in recent weeks. You could see his confidence grow but he was lucky that the Nijmegen wouldn’t have looked out of place at a Snow White panto audition. £3m for Jaaskelainen in January still sounds like a good deal.
Well it’s better rumour than that one about Beckham, why would ‘Arry want someone who will probably struggle to get into a Milan side that had rings run round them by Pompey last night. That was a tough one for the south coasters, I have to say Donkey Adams’ side played exceptionally well and played football the way it’s supposed to be done, yeah Milan gave them plenty of space but how many times do you see a British team give away possession far too easily in a game like that, some of those cross field balls were sublime.
Belhadj and Traore were excellent down the left and Johnson played just as well on the right the Milan fullbacks were all over the place, I would also say Younes Kaboul had a pretty damn good game, if Ramos/Comolli hadn’t have got rid of some of Spurs squad ‘Arry could have worked his magic on then and we could have seen that kind of performance from the £8m French U21 captain.
The thing is it was Donkey’s subs that caused all their problems in the end, Mvuemba lollygaged and show boated thinking it was a done deal and then Adams/they went all defensive with too many humped up long balls, when playing as they had done for the previous 84 minutes, keeping the ball and attacking down the flanks would have seen a famous victory.